Chicago Tribune
Voice of the People
435 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL  60611

Thank you for your article “Cranes vs. Games” about the Olympic plan for Lakewood Forest Preserve.

The quotes from Lake County Forest Preserve President Bonnie Thomson Carter and the statements in a response letter by Wauconda Mayor Sal Saccomanno reveal a political slant that threatens Lakewood Forest Preserve.  The mayor suggests only a small minority of Lake County residents fails to recognize this "opportunity."  But in the Lake County Journals' newspaper poll asking about having the Olympics in Lakewood, 79 % responded that it "should not be in a forest preserve," 20 % said "keep Lake County out of it," and 5 % said they "needed more complete plans."  Only 7 % called it a "great opportunity".

The mayor calls it "an opportunity to have one of the finest horse show arenas in the world."   Although he states "the benefits are endless," the only concrete benefit he sites is Bonnie Thomson Carter's quote in your original article that a program will be developed to allow "disabled and underprivileged youth ... to ride horses."  Would such a program not be feasible with the current horse trails?  Or, do the disabled require Olympic-caliber jumps and water obstacles?  Why wait ten years to institute such a worthy program?  And how about programs to save baby seals, and ones to help orphans and starving, blind people?   Surely such similar ruses would garner even more support for the plan.

The mayor assures us that we need not worry about signing over management of the facilities to a private company because the Lake County Forest Preserve Board has told him, "There will never be a clause in the contract that would allow monster truck pulls or rock concerts."  (Hopefully there will be many other "never-to-be clauses.")  He says the contract will be “specific” but tells us only this.   How can he know any of this when the contract is to be written ten years from now?  At that time can we expect that such narrow assurances given back in 2007 will require the contract to preserve the land?  Can we expect its writers to respect the Lake County citizens who voted for taxes to preserve forest preserve land even though the Olympic plan itself does not?  I doubt it.

The mayor accuses citizens opposed to the Olympic plan for Lakewood of pursuing "personal agendas." Indeed, thousands of us expressed our agenda when we voted taxes for preservation.  Isn’t it this taxpayers’ agenda the mayor and Forest Preserve Board ought to pursue instead of redirecting our tax money and land toward their personal political agendas?

Read the mayor's letter carefully.  The themes are not preservation and respecting the voters' intentions, but glory, fame, and money.  Did we enact taxes to help our politicians pursue these?  The politicians attracted to these are pulled away from public service and good governance.
 
Please continue to cover this story for its environmental and political lessons.

 
Ken Tomchik
Wauconda